Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 93203 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 466(@200wpm)___ 373(@250wpm)___ 311(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 93203 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 466(@200wpm)___ 373(@250wpm)___ 311(@300wpm)
She frowned. “I had a small drop in sales. I thought nothing of it until I noticed it remained consistent.”
I nodded for her to go on.
“I installed a camera and caught nothing. Then one day, I accidentally set the recording to start early and caught an employee bringing in their own store-bought bagels and selling them in the shop. He would stock the shelves, slotting them in. Then he pocketed the sales. He did it so well, it took me a while to figure it out. I didn’t miss it when it was five, but the twenty dollars a day caught my eye, and I certainly noticed the eighty dollars, then the hundred as he started doing it every day and adding in more bagels. In a month, he was pocketing over four hundred bucks.” A small smile twitched on her lips. “Less the cost of the cheaper bagels, of course.”
I stared at her. I picked up the phone. “Get me the feed from Breakers the past month two hours before they open. Line it up. I’ll be there soon.” Then I texted Aldo.
I stood and rounded the desk. She didn’t expect it when I cupped her face, and I kissed her again. Deep, long, passionate. “You are fucking brilliant, Effie. Exquisitely beautiful outside, smart and capable in that brain of yours.” I kissed her again. “Brilliant.”
She clutched my wrists. “You’re not going to kill someone are you?”
“I will teach them a lesson.”
“Roman, there could be a reason—”
I cut her off. “Do not tell me how to run my business, Effie. You steal, you pay the price.”
“Maybe the person doing this had no choice.”
“There is always a choice.”
She lifted an eyebrow, and I knew what she was thinking. I hadn’t given her a choice. I hated that she was in my head. That she made me question my ways. I tugged my shirt sleeves down, ending the conversation. I stepped back. “Don’t wait up.”
In the elevator, I rolled my neck, anger coursing through me. Stealing from me was an unforgivable offense in my world. The person doing this needed to be taught a hard lesson.
And my lessons were rarely forgotten.
CHAPTER 11
ROMAN
Aldo and I watched the video feeds, finding exactly what I anticipated seeing after Effie told me her story. I was surprised to see the culprit was Connor, one of our younger staff. He’d been with us for over two years and had always been steady and reliable. The one time he’d ever not shown up had been when his parents died in a car accident, leaving him and a younger sibling with only each other. He’d only missed a week of work and was very private about his grief and life. We’d sent flowers, and Aldo and I had gone to the memorial out of respect.
It didn’t take long to find his methods. He came in early before his shift on a Friday and Saturday, carrying his backpack as usual, but instead of stowing it away and returning to the bar, he slid a bottle of Crown Royal and Absolut Vodka onto the shelf. Just one bottle of each on his side of the bar. Not enough to get noticed. Inventory would have been done earlier in the day, so no one would be the wiser. Then he would put his backpack on his shoulder and leave, reappearing closer to his shift, waving at his manager and coworkers. Every shift, he’d pour drinks from those bottles, disposing of them quickly by hiding the empty bottles in his backpack. He only did it on weekends, when it was crazy busy, and he covered his tracks by ringing in one drink instead of two, pocketing his money quickly and evenly. A ten or twenty slipped into his pocket regularly. Each bottle gave him a tidy net profit.
And dipped into mine.
“Get him,” I commanded Aldo after checking that he was in the bar. “Bring him downstairs.”
Aldo nodded and left, and I paced, fuming. I treated my employees well. Paid them above a living wage. Provided benefits. Bonuses. And this was how he repaid me? Stealing?
I tucked my gun into my waistband and checked that I had a knife in my ankle holster. I hadn’t decided what to do with him, which shocked me. The last person who’d attempted to steal from me had lost all the fingers on their right hand and the ability to walk for months. The one person who succeeded didn’t get to spend a penny before my gun wiped the satisfied smirk off their face.
Why I couldn’t decide what to do with Connor was no doubt simply the how. It had nothing to do with the woman upstairs.
Yet somehow during the elevator ride down to the basement, I kept seeing Effie. Thinking of what she said. How she would react. She had fired the boy stealing from her, she’d told me. Made him help in a soup kitchen to work off the debt. She tracked him until he had “paid her back” in volunteer hours. He had apologized and told her he learned his lesson. He left town after that, and she hoped he’d change his life for the better. I thought her incredibly naïve and far too kind.